The Aftermath
by GatorgirlFL16
Summary: I have always hated the stars. They are free from having to carry the burdens of pain and suffering that engulf there every waking hour. Stars are free and they are able to live out their lives in peace… but I…I am not so lucky. My name is Nico Di Angelo and this is the story of what happened after Percy Jackson was killed by Kronos. Rated T for violence. PJO characters only OC's
1. Dark memories

**Hey guys new story but this is only my second full fanfic, I'm not going to give up on my other story between Nico and Rose, but I might be doing this at the same time, anyways hope you enjoy. :P**

I have always hated the stars. Every night I see them glittering in the inky blackness of the sky, free, and I envy them. They are free from having to carry the burdens of pain and suffering that engulf there every waking hour. They have never had to lay their head down at night and have their dreams filled with horrific memories of their friends and family being tortured and killed in front of their eyes and being unable to do anything to help them. Their ears are not filled with the screams of ones they love and their bodies do not carry the scars of endless hours of torture. Stars are free and they are able to live out their lives in peace… but I…I am not so lucky. My name is Nico Di Angelo and this is the story of what happened after Percy Jackson was killed by Kronos.

(0-0-0-0-0-0-0)

My feet pound on the pavement of the broken city streets. My breath comes out hard and fast as I sprint towards the safety of the forest. I will never let Kronos catch me, I will never go back to the horrors of his sick and twisted prison for rouge demigods ever again.

The tree line is only a hundred yards in front of me when I feel a whip wrap around my left ankle. I slam onto the ground and choke back a scream as I feel hydra acid sear into my flesh. I hear the cackling of an empousa behind me and I pull out my stygian iron sword form its sheath. I quickly sever the cord and it falls from my ankle, but not before it did some serious damage. My whole left leg feels like it's on fire but I grit my teeth and try to keep running despite the pain. Ninety yards until the forest.

I hobble along as fast as I can but I'm not fast enough. The empousa rakes her claws across my back and I fall to the ground once again. She hisses at me like a snake that has just caught her prey.

"At last, I have finally caught the elusive Nico Di Angelo." She smiles at me with her fangs sharp as needles poking out over her lips.

"I wouldn't be so sure."

My body is engulfed in shadows and I fall through the ground into darkness with the empousa hissing in frustration and anger behind me.

Once I'm out of the shadows the adrenaline that was pumping though my body vanishes and I feel the full force of the injuries. The claw marks sting badly but thankfully they aren't as deep as I first thought. My leg was another story.

I slowly lift the pant leg of my black jeans so I can see the swollen, red and green mess that used to be my left ankle. The whip left a deep gash around my entire ankle that was now bleeding profusely and a horrific green and yellow puss leaks out of the infected wound. My brain didn't register the pain but I knew that I had to get back to my makeshift camp before the poison got any farther into my blood stream.

I try standing up and walking but my ankle gives under my weight and I fall to the forest floor cursing Kronos. "Well I guess shadow traveling it is." I say bitterly and I begin to fall into the shadows once again.

(0-0-0-0-0-0-0)

My camp is still exactly how I left it. Materials for a fire plied up in the center with my duffle bag lying under a tree unopened. I collapse under the tree from exhaustion. My eyelids are heavy but I begin to unpack what little nectar I have from my pack. I decide to dig into my meager supply and take a sip of the liquid. The taste of my mother's home made hot chocolate fills my mouth and I sigh with pleasure.

My ankle and back are healed within seconds and I begin to make my camp for the night.

I keep the fire small so as not to attract any unwanted visitors. My Aviator jacket and black T-shirt are torn in the back form the_ empousa_ claws and I shiver as the cold wind of the night finds its way to my skin. I rub my hands together near the fire trying to get some feeling back into my fingers. As the sun finally went behind the trees I stamp out my fire and climb up swiftly into one of the tallest evergreens with my duffle bag in tow. I find a crisscross of branches and limbs that are sturdy enough to hold my weight and roll out my sleeping bag.

I look up in between the branches above me and see the stars as they begin to shine. I can only bare to look at them for more than a few seconds before I have to turn my head away. I close my eyes as the sound of monsters roaming the forest and the distant memory of evil laughter and horrific screams fill my ears.

0-0-0-0-0-0

My dreams are far worse than the reality that I live in. Every night I see my friends and family being tortured and killed in front of my eyes as my feet and wrists are shackled to the floor. Biannca is always the first to show up and to be killed, she screams my name over and over again asking me to save her, to help her, and to put her out of her misery.

They go through everyone like this, bringing in one after another each one dying a more horrific death then the last. By the time they make it to the final one I am writhing on the floor in agony pleading for them to stop and put an end to my suffering.

The last one they carry in is Percy Jackson. They throw him on his knees in front of me and celestial bronze chains wrap around his wrists and ankles. Kronos stands behind him, scythe in hand. Percy, in all of this, is grinning. "It doesn't matter what you do to me, you'll never have the satisfaction of breaking me." He said defiantly.

Kronos says nothing to him, but lowers his scythe to where Percy kneels. He drags the blade up and down Percy's chest, slowly, making Percy scream in pain. He continued on like this for what seemed like forever, prolonging Percy's torture for his amusement. As he finished he pulled the scythe away to reveal his gruesome masterpiece; the words "Young Hero" scrawled across Percy's chest.

I retch on the floor beside me as Percy kneels there. His boy is shaking and his eyes have a distant look in them. A thin line of blood runs down his cheek and joins up with a larger stream of crimson that leaks onto the floor. Kronos walks around Percy like a vulture circling his prey. "My how the mighty have fallen." He laughs.

I pull hopelessly at the shackles around my wrists as Kronos ran his scythe down the length of Percy's bare arm drawing more and more blood. Percy cries out in pain and anger but I can do nothing to help him, or any of my other friends for that matter.

Percy looks at me. "Why aren't you doing anything?" he asked angrily. The shackles around my limbs vanish and I try to run towards him but a force begins to pull me backwards. My own shadow travel portal is pulling me back. I fight the swirling vortex of darkness with all my strength but I keep sliding backwards.

Kronos laughs. "Yes little Nico, try to save the only friend that you have left." I push forward as hard as I can but I only slide back farther.

Kronos now has his scythe behind Percy's back and is grinning evilly at me. "To bad, you could have saved him, heck you could have saved them all but you chose to run." He lowers his head down to Percy's ear and chuckles. "Any last words_ Hero of Olympus_?" He asks putting as much sarcasm into the last few words as possible.

Percy turns to Kronos with a pained expression. "Yeah…" he spits blood into Kronos' face causing the Titan to roar in anger. "… Screw you."

The last thing I see before the darkness overtakes me is Kronos shoving his scythe through Percy's back and puncturing his heart. Blood splatters everywhere and Percy falls lifeless to the floor, his sea green still open.

**Yeah kind of creepy but hey this is Kronos we're talking about; anyways please read and review, I enjoy constructive criticism but please no flames! not that I have anything against gay or anything but Nico is straight in this story because... well you'll see. Love y'all :P **


	2. Princes and princesses

**Hey guys second chapter is up. My brain is a cluttered mess so please forgive me if this chapter is a little scattered. :P**

I wake up in a cold sweat. My hands are trembling and tears stain my face. My breath is shaky as I sit up from my makeshift bed.

It's not yet morning but I cannot force myself back into sleep. I try to shake the horrible memories out of my mind but they're burned into the back of my eyes. When I blink the images flash into view and I shudder.

By the time the sun comes up I had already packed up my duffle bag and had started moving. I knew that if I didn't keep moving every monster within a 20 mile radius would be on me.

I walk along the ground at points but when I sense monsters, or rather smell them, I climb up into a nearby tree and continue on among the branches. No one can hear me as I leap from tree to tree, hiding in the shadows just out of sight.

Most of the monsters I see are patrolling the forest outside of New York City. None have caught any demigods which meant that I didn't have to rescue anyone. I was the last demigod who wasn't part of a rebel group. I'd been surviving on my own for two years; no help from anyone and that's how I like it. I only have to worry about myself in dangerous situations. Sure I help demigods when I can, but only because I know what Kronos can do to them. I never want anyone to suffer through pain like that.

Most of the time I stay within a 5 mile radius of New York City so I can keep an eye on Kronos and look for a weakness; so far none have come.

The sky by now is a hazy brown and most of the plants around the city are dead or dying. The trees are the only thing that survive due to the nymphs that Kronos has allowed to live. No birds sing and the winds blows through the branches of the trees, biting at my skin and hinting at the soon approaching winter.

Though Demeter and most of the Olympians were killed by Typhon; the four winds were tasked with creating the seasons. The humans still noticed the chance. Most of them thought that the apocalypse had started when Kronos took control, and in a way they were right. Usually Kronos didn't bother with humans, unless they could see through the mist. He still had a grudge against Rachel Elizabeth Dare for hitting him in the eye with her hairbrush. Still he was more focused on wiping demigods off the face of the planet.

He despised demigods more than the actual gods. Some rouge demigods had formed a rebel group most commonly known as the Titian's Bane. They usually attacked small hordes of monsters wandering around the country and giving Kronos a major headache. Mostly though, his problems were with me. I was the last child of the big three. He still believed that the prophecy wasn't complete and that I could save Olympus. I'm 15. Two months until my birthday. I had a small glimmer of hope that the prophecy would come true and I would preserve Olympus, but in reality… in knew it was hopeless. Percy Jackson, the best demigod of our generation couldn't even beat Kronos when he was in his weakened stage. How was I supposed to kill him when he is at full strength?

My mind is wandering as I leap to another branch; however, this branch isn't as thick as the others and I hear a snap! I try to grab at another branch and prevent myself from falling but I can't find a handhold and I tumble to the ground some 30 feet below. Branches scratch my legs and arms as I make my way down.

I hit the ground… hard. My breath comes out in a painful grunt. I'm stunned for a moment by the pain but I quickly get up and look at my surroundings. I'm in a small camp, a bonfire blazing in the middle with a single mat laid beside it. It seems abandoned, but an urgent voice tells me different.

"What are you doing? Do you have a death wish or are you just plain stupid? " a voice whispers harshly to me.

I turn around and see a girl sitting next to a tree her hands bound together by a rope wrapped around the trunk of the tree. Her skin is lightly tanned but littered with bruises and a few deep scratches. She's skinny from lack of food but not so much that she looks sick. Her clothes are torn and filthy; a pair of blue jeans that are torn at the knees and at small places in her thighs and a black T-shirt with a pair of teal headphones on the front that was covered in dirt and… dried blood. She is bare foot and her feet are dirty and scratched. Her ink black hair is pulled back into a short messy braid that reveals her face. Her lips are cracked and bleeding slightly and a small buries is visible on her lower jaw; but her eyes are what really catch my attention. They're a bright green-teal around the edges of the iris that slowly fade to a green and just before they reach the pupil the green fades into a golden brown, like waves crashing upon the shore.

I stare at her like an idiot for a few moments before I come back to my senses. "Who did this to you?"

"Shh… keep it down!" she whispers. Her eyes turn away from me and turn to fear. "Forget it just hide! Hurry!"

I don't argue and duck into some thorny shrubs just as a massive figure stomps into the camp; Atlas, Kronos's second in command. The titian wastes no time and walks directly toward the girl who stays perfectly still and tries not to look at where I am hidden.

Atlas sighs and looks at the girl with pleasure. "Hello, my dear. Did you miss me?"

She stays silent which seems to irritate the titian. "Now come on don't be like that. I just want to know how my girl is doing." He leans down so his face is in front of the girls. She again says nothing and turns her face away from his.

Atlas growls in frustration and grabs the girls chin and forces her to look at him. At first I think that he is going to slap her across the face but his scowl turns into an evil smirk. "You know I've always wanted to taste the lips of a sea spawn."

My mind spins at the words. Sea spawn. It couldn't be.

Atlas leans in to kiss the girl but he doesn't get very far. She spits in his face. "Well you're going to have to wait a bit longer."

The titian roared in anger and whipped the spit form his face. "You're going to pay for that." A look of fear crossed the girls face just before Atlas lifted her up off the ground by her throat dragging her back up the side of the tree until she was over his head. She struggled against her bonds but couldn't break free as Atlas continued to cut off her oxygen supply. She gasped for air as Atlas chuckled to himself. "How does that feel my dear? Do you like that? Huh?!" he said tightening his grip.

I couldn't take any more of this. I emerge from the bushes. "Hey Atlas!"

The titian turned just as I threw my sword at him, aiming for his chest and hitting my mark. A look of surprise crosses his face before I run at him and twist my sword out of his body. E bellows in rage and drops the girl from his grip. She slides down the side of the tree gasping and choking, trying to get enough oxygen back into her lungs.

The titian slams his hand into my stomach and I go flying, crashing into a tree on the other side of the camp. "Bad idea puny demigod." he rushes at me like a freight train but I quickly dodge and slash my sword at his side. Another scream of pain escapes the Titian's mouth as golden ichor begins to run out of the newly opened wound.

Atlas swipes at me again but I jump over the attack and bring my sword down on his wrist, severing his hand from his arm. The titian yells again and clutches the wound to his chest as more of his blood runs onto the ground.

He is now seething with rage and he jumps at me. I don't expect the sudden burst of speed and his foot slams me into the ground. The sole of his boot digs into my neck as I try to desperately push him off. Atlas grins triumphantly down at me as I grin my teeth and claw at his large boot squishing my windpipe.

"You're good kid I'll give you that, but you're not good enough. Kronos is going to praise me for bringing in two of the most powerful demigods to him in chains." Atlas laughed.

"I'm never going back to that place ever again!" I say as loud as I can with his boot on my throat.

I will myself to fall into the shadow of a nearby tree and Atlas growls in frustration as I disappear from his sight. I wind up behind the tree that the girl is tied to and I cut her hands free of the ropes.

"Come out you worthless spawn!" Atlas yells as he searches for me.

I run to the girl and stand her up on her bare feet.

"I'd really love to stay and chat Atlas but, I have other things I need to do." I say as the titian turns to where the two of us stand. His face is full of anger and surprise when he sees us.

I give him a wicked grin and a wink before I vanish into the shadows with the girl at my side.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

We wind up in another part of the forest, too far away for Atlas to find us. My mind is hazy from shadow traveling for such a long distance and I sit down on the dying grass as soon as we reappear out of the shadows.

The girl blinks her eyes a few times in shock but soon gets over it and begins to rub her wrists where the ropes had left deep red marks on her skin.

"You okay?" I ask seeing the hand mark on her throat.

She nods. "Yeah I'm fine, thanks… and you?"

"Same."

A million questions were running through my mind. Who was this girl? Why did Kronos want her? Why had Atlas called her Sea spawn? Why was she out here all on her own?

I can't think straight with all of these questions and I barely register her voice as she speaks.

"I guess I'd better get going; thanks again for… um… saving me back there." She says awkwardly. I don't say anything as he begins to walk away onto the forest. I almost let her go. I wanted so badly to forget all of my questions and just leave well enough alone, but I know I can't afford to let her walk away without getting some answers.

"You're a daughter of Poseidon… aren't you?" I blurt out.

The girl stops dead in her tracks and doesn't say a word. I continue on with my questions. "What are you doing out here alone? Why does Kronos want a daughter of Poseidon? Where did you come from? Who are you?"

She turns around in a flash and stares at me but doesn't answer my questions. She just continues to stare at me with her fascinating eyes and I do the same for a long time.

When she finally speaks, her voice has a hint of laughter to it. "I knew it was you; as soon as you shadow traveled I knew that you were him. Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, prince of the underworld." She says a smile paying at her lips.

There is tension between us that is building, but it is soon broken by the girl sticking her hand out for me to shake.

"Anya Westfall, daughter of Poseidon and princess of the sea."

**Yep and now we will start to get into the flashbacks and answering some major questions for the story. Hope you enjoyed. Please review I love to know what you guys think and I want to get better at writing. **

**:P **


	3. The Puppeteer

**Hey guys kind of a creepy chapter here but I hope you guys will still like it. I'm trying to get better at writing and describing different settings and characters so please give me constructive criticism, but no flames. Hope you guy's enjoy.**

We spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other. She answered all of my questions and I answered most of hers.

She didn't ask me much, but sometimes I just couldn't bring myself to answer; luckily she got the message that I didn't want to talk about the subject and she moved on.

She smiled a lot, which seemed odd to me. I hadn't been in contact with another demigod in a long time. In a strange way it felt nice to see another person who laughed; it lifted my spirits. I even laughed! For the first time in almost three years I actually laughed! I knew I made a face after I had laughed when Anya looked at me with concern.

"You okay Nico?"

"Yeah… I just don't laugh all that often… it feels weird." I say.

She laughs, a bubbly and light laughter that makes another smile form on my lips. "What's so funny?" I ask.

She chuckles a little more before answering, "It's just you."

"Jee' thanks." I say earning another wave of laughter from Anya.

It feels as if we've known each other forever. Like two long lost friends who picked up right where they left off.

We continue to talk until the sun is just beginning to set over the tree tops. I stand up off the ground and scan the perimeter, making sure that there are no threats nearby before I turn back to Anya. "We can camp here for the night. Hopefully Atlas will wait until morning to start searching for us." I grab my duffle bag from the ground and begin to climb up into a nearby pine tree. I quickly make my way up the tree grabbing branches and swinging myself up higher and high into the tree. When I find a spot for me and Anya to sleep safely for the night I stop. Anya is staring up at me wide eyed.

"No way am I going up there." She says.

"Come on, it's not that bad. Besides, it's safer up here than it is down there." I call.

"Not in this lifetime." She says crossing her arms over her chest and looks up at me again with raised eyebrows. I give her the same look back. We stare at each other for a few minutes neither one of us breaking eye contact.

I laugh after a while. "You're so stubborn you know, you're exactly like Per…" I stop, flashes of the dream from the night before fill my mind. The torture, the screams, the blood.

"Nico, you okay?" Anya asks worriedly.

I shake out of the nightmare. "I'm fine… so are you coming up or what?"

"Nope"

I sigh "Well then you leave me no choice." I fall into the shadows of the tree and appear next to Anya in an instant. I wrap my arms around her waist and whisper in her ear. "Hold on."

I fall back into the shadows with her at my side and come to light back up in the tree. I feel triumphant at winning the argument; until Anya screams in panic and wraps her arms around me so tightly that I can barely breathe. She's trembling and yelling at me. "Get me down! Get me down! Get me down!"

I don't argue and shadow travel back to the forest floor. As soon as we're on solid ground, Anya releases her grip on me and scrambles back from the tree breathing heavily. Her hands are shaking and she stares up at the tree in fear.

"You're afraid of heights." I say slightly surprised.

She closes her eyes and clenches her fist. "Yeah… when Kronos first took over he captured me down in Florida. He took us to that hellhole of a prison for demigods. He would drop me from the highest point in the compound and just before I would hit the ground he would stop me. He did that every day for three months." She chuckled reluctantly. "You'd think I would have gotten over my fear after so long, but it just made it worse."

She hugged her shoulders and sighed. "I hate that I'm so weak."

"You're not weak." I say. She looks up at me. "Being afraid of something doesn't make you weak. Letting that fear consume your life is what makes someone weak. Trust me… I should know."

I look at my hands and arms, so many scars each one holds a different memory of pain; but having to face my worst fear every day, it would be a living nightmare.

I sigh. "You know we can't stay down here." I grab her hand and look into her amazing eyes. "I promise that nothing is going to happen. I'll be right here…okay?" She stares at me. "Look… I know you're scared, but fear isn't a luxury we can afford right now."

She keeps her gaze steady but nods.

"Alright, you ready?"

She nods again and squeezes my hand.

"Okay." We disappear into the shadows once again and reappear back in the tree.

Anya doesn't let go of my hand. She's still trembling like before, but she didn't scream or argue.

I don't let my grip waver as I lay out my sleeping bag on the branches of the pine tree. The needles provide somewhat of an extra cushion under the sleeping bag, but Anya doesn't seem to notice. I can barely get her to lay down and even when she is lying on her side she's strung as tight as a bowstring.

I'm careful not to touch her except for where are hands meet, but soon I can feel her body shivering from the cold.

I sit up carefully and begin to pull off my aviator jacket. "Here," I wrap the jacket around her trembling shoulders, "take this. It's not much but it should help a little."

She takes the jacket gratefully and we lay back down. Her breath has now slowed down to a normal pace but I can tell that she's still not comfortable. I move away from her. "Hey if you're not comfortable with me being beside you I can move." I say.

"No!" she says urgently. "Please, I um… could you… hold me?" she asks timidly.

I stare at her for a moment but I nod and slowly begin to wrap my arms around her smaller frame. She shivers as my hand brushes the small amount of bare skin that is showing on her arms. "Sorry, I'm not going to be much help when it comes to heat." I say ruefully.

She laughs nervously but tucks her body closer to mine. Her hair smells vaguely of ocean water; comforting and tropical. I can feel her body relaxing and soon I hear her smooth and steady breathing.

"Good night… princess." I whisper into her ear just as I too fall the darkness of sleep.

0-0-0-0-0

The dream comes again tonight, the same start, the same tears, and the same screams. Up until the end everything was the way it had always been; but then it moves to when Percy is going to die.

I'm sitting on the ground shackles bound around my wrists and feet but the room I'm in is different. The ceiling is higher and a catwalk with railings runs along the length of the room but a large chunk of the railing is missing from the center of the walkway.

I'm confused for a moment, but my attention is turned to a girls screams of protests.

"No not again, I'll do anything! Please stop!" The girl cries. I can see her figure being led atop the catwalk but it's too dark for me to make out any noticeable features.

The girls figure is lead on, despite her protests, until she reaches the center of the catwalk without the metal railing. Her screams grow louder and more urgent but no one answer's her cries. Before I can understand what exactly is happening hear a bloody chilling scream and a few seconds after, a large crack!

A spotlight turns on and I follow the beam of light to the floor below the catwalk. A broken form lies on the ground a pool of crimson liquid already beginning to flow onto the cement. The figures legs and arms are bent at odd angles and her clothes are torn and dirty.

I stare in horror as I realize that the girl's body from the catwalk now lies before me bloodied and broke. As my eyes finally find the girls face, I let out a hoarse cry of disbelief.

Her hair is long and dirty but still a beautiful raven black. Her eyes still open, but lifeless, are the same ones I had stared into when I saved her from Atlas only hours ago.

"Anya?!" I cry out. Her eyes stare at me dull and her neck is snapped at a horrible angle. But the worst part was her mouth. It was still agape from her screams but as I stare at her it curls up into a sickening sneer.

"Why didn't you save me? You could have stopped all of this, but you ran like a coward." Anya's corpses says. Bile rises in my throat and I feel as if I'm going to be sick. Her body is still broken and unmoving but her mouth forms the words making her look like a damaged doll someone just threw in the trash.

Suddenly her corpse rises off the floor and shuffles over to me. Her movements are jerky and her head is tilted to the side, her eyes unblinking.

She stands over me blood still dripping down her limbs and onto the floor around me. She sticks her gruesome face into mine and screams at me. "You let this happen! It's all your fault!"

"No I didn't…" I try to continue but a new even more horrific scene begins to unveil itself to me. Through the glare of the spotlight I can make out tinny strings holding Anya's corpse up off the ground like some twisted, demonic puppet being dangled in front of me. I stare in a horrified state of shock as more figures begin to come up behind Anya.

As they make their way into the light I can see all of my friends and family that were killed and tortured in Kronos's prison. Each one looks just as grotesque and demonic as Anya. Some with broken or missing limbs, others with gashes or burns littering their skin. All of them have strings holding them up off the ground. They're all staring at me and shouting, some curse at me and nothing else while others ask me why I let them die, why had I run away when I was needed the most.

When I couldn't answer their questions they began to swarm around me; their screams and questions getting louder and louder with each moment.

When they reach me, they begin to tear at my clothes and my body, drawing blood and tearing me apart. The pain is unbearable and I cry out in pure agony. They begin to pile on top of me crushing me under their weight, knocking the breath out of my lungs and burying me under a bloody and guilty pile of bodies.

At some point I am on my back and staring up at the catwalk above the ground as bodies continue to pile on top of me. I see all of the strings that hold up my friends leading up to a single point on the catwalk. Someone is holding onto the strings and controlling their movements; their puppeteer. The figures eyes give them away; their deep golden gleam and evil glint make them impossible to misplace; Kronos.

His deep evil laughter breaks in over the noise and I see him smirk down at me from the darkness, his teeth glowing white like the Cheshire cat, just as the life is squeezed out of me and my world goes black.

**I some of you are probably wondering what Nico ran away from and why he keeps having these horrible dreams, but I should be able to start explaining a lot of this in the next couple of chapters. I also have another story called "Darkest Betrayal" which is another Nico Di Angelo story if you want to read more of my writing. Anyways love y'all Read &Review you know the drill. :P **


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